There’s a hell of a lot of work here that doesn’t add up to a tremendously great game. I think games like this really serve as an example of how important it is to pay attention to the gameplay. Games need a good control feel, it’s as simple as that.

Doubly annoying is the fact that you actually have to play through the entire Instincts campaign before you can even unlock the Evolution levels, so any existing fans might be better off buying the standalone Far Cry Instincts Evolution on Xbox and swallow the minor technical step down.

Far Cry Instincts: Predator would be something special on the Xbox (the original was given an 8, after all), but we've seen it all before and Ubi-Soft have clearly forgotten that we are now entering the next generation of gaming.

It'd need to deliver a pretty substantial kick in the ass to get anyone to purchase it yet again, but Far Cry: Instincts -- Predator falls quite a bit short in the asskick department. It just doesn't offer enough new material beyond yet another noun tacked to the end of its ever-lengthening name.

There is much to like about this game, but it's all smashed to giblets by the things it does wrong. The good things include a fun There is much to like about this game, but it's all smashed to giblets by the things it does wrong. The good things include a fun storyline, attractive (if sub par for next-gen) graphics, and cool animalistic powers. Now, the bad. I got my X360 about a year ago. This game was the first I bought. I have yet to finish it, because each time I've tried to play through, I've been utterly frustrated in short order and inspired to pick up something else. Since I began Far Cry, I have completed Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3 (all several times, on normal and hard difficulties), Dark Watch, Gun, BioShock, Red Dead Revolver, Viva Pinata, Overlord, God of War, God of War 2, The Simpsons Game, Crackdown, Prey, Dead or Alive 2, 3, and 4, Guild Wars, Half Life 2 (my second time, on hard), Conan, Kameo, James Bond Nightfire, Tomb Raider Legend, and a fair amount of World of Warcraft. My latest attempt at Far Cry just ended, and is likely my last. I'm playing at normal difficulty (Hunter), but the game is too hard for several reasons: First, there is no quick save feature and the game relies on automatic save points. That in itself isn't bad (the Halos use auto-saves to good effect, for example), but in Far Cry the saves are too far apart, and there's no way of predicting where the next one will be. So if you play a while, but need to stop soon, odds are you'll need to quit before hitting the next save, and may well lose all you've accomplished in that session. Also, all too frequently, I've spent a good deal of time getting through a treacherous area, only to have a moment of bad luck which kills me and puts me right back where I started, at the last save. I've lost up to a couple hours progress to this nonsense at times. Next, the clunky controls all by themselves can create those moments of bad luck. Maybe you accidentally throw a grenade when trying to hold your breath for a tricky sniper shot. Maybe you inadvertently leap to your feet from a stealthy crawl, in plain site of the enemy, simply because you brushed up against a weird angle in the ground. Maybe you tried to use one of the various vehicles in the game, which have the sloppiest freaking controls I've ever used for vehicles in a game, and which are usually a sure ride to your death. As noted by many reviews, the AI is unpredictable, often stupid and not very aware, but sometimes eagle-eyed and more aware of their surroundings than is humanly possible. You're left with no true sense of what you can and can't do in approaching and dealing with the enemies, or what tactics will be effective. Worst of all, the game CHEATS. You're presented with an illusion of choice in where you go and how you approach challenges, but in fact you're very obviously herded along on rails, straight into forced confrontations in which you are funneled by the landscape into inescapable fights with the enemy. Sure, we're all used to that, and even the best of games often play that way. But in this game, you're in a jungle, on a large island, and to be stealing along through the leafy wood only to suddenly find that there's a wall of leaves to one side that looks no different than the growth you've been moving through, mirrored by a similar leafy wall a short distance to the other side, is really destructive to immersion, becoming bluntly frustrating as both invisible walls grow closer and closer, funneling you directly into your enemies. And don't bother scouting out where the enemies are with the binoculars and sniper scope the game gives you, or making cool tactical plans on how to approach these dangerous situations, because you'll just get annoyed when the time and effort turns out to be pointless. This is the kind of game in which you can locate all the mercs in an encampment, kill them all, and then be attacked as you move through the camp by a fresh horde of them springing from absolutely nowhere. It's like looking in a closet as you search a room, finding it empty, then suddenly being attacked by five bad guys who leap out of the closet. It's ridiculous, and it makes your strategies and tactics completely moot and a waste of time. I wish I could play through this game. I'm intrigued by the story, and I want to play more with the feral powers. But, alas, no; life is way too damn short. Far Cry Instincts Predator could have been great, as I understand its PC predecessor to be. But the developers designed it to constantly kill any sense of fun the game might manage to create. Go to a game store and throw a rock in any direction and you'll probably hit a better game.…Full Review »

MikeS.

Dec 3, 2006

4

This game is lackluster to say the least. The graphics are terrible and the A.I. is borderline retarded. The controls are extremelly clunky. This game is lackluster to say the least. The graphics are terrible and the A.I. is borderline retarded. The controls are extremelly clunky. If you thought the P.C. version was good and that's your reasoning for getting this game, you will be sorely dissapointed. The P.C. version vs. this xbox360 port is basically no contest. The P.C. version almost seems like it was done by a completely different developer all together.…Full Review »

MorganS.

Apr 14, 2006

10

very good in fact the credit should go to the map editor it was amazing.